Tufting machine



April 27, 1937- F. J. LUNDGREN TUFTING MACHINE Filed May 5, 1956 INVENTOR.

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ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 27, 1937 t] STATES PATENT OFFICE TUFTING MACHINE Application May 5, 1936, Serial No. 77,935

5 Claims.

This invention relates to machines for tufting fabrics, as rug-tufting machines, and particularly to tufting machines of the'poWer-drWen class and in which, with a reciprocated needle which penetrates and thus thrusts loops of yarn through the fabric, there is a reciprocated follower which also penetrates the fabric and serves to hold each loop thrust therethrough by the needle.

In the operation of these machines it becomes necessary more or less frequently to alter the timing of the needle and follower with respect to each other according as differing patterns and other requirements of the product demand. To accomplish this object and simplify the construction and reduce the cost of manufacture and also provide a machine of this class adapted to be held conveniently in the hand of the operator I have formed the machine as follows: There is a housing comprising two substantially counter part and generally fiat concavo-convex sections and means detachably uniting them in substantial registry with and with their concave sides facing each other; opposed elongated slides are reciprocative lengthwise of themselves within the respective sections and guided thereby in paths substantially parallel to each other and to the plane between the sections and in reciprocating they are adapted to protrude in the same direction from the housing and they have their protruding ends adapted respectively to carry the needle and follower; a rotary driver is journaled in the housing; and there are separate means, movable within the respective sections and geared to the driver, for transmitting reciprocation from the driver to said slides, one of the latter means being disconnective from the driver when said sections are separated, whereby, upon such separation, the changing of the timing may be effected.

In the preferred form, further to simplify the construction and reduce the cost of manufacture and afford interchangeability of parts, the slides are substantial counterparts of each other as are also the indicated motion-transmitting means.

i Further, in the preferred form the slides and motion-transmitting means are each confined to the corresponding section independently of the other section, so as to remain intact with the former section when the sections are separated.

In the drawing,

Fig. l is a front elevation of the improved machine;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof, with a portion of the housing broken away and the motor, circuit leads and circuit closer shown dotted;

Figs. 3 and 4 are inside elevations of the two sections of the housing; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view partly in section and partly in elevation showing how a slide and gear may be connected.

The sections and 2 of the housing are so far substantial counterparts of each other that they may be both cast in the same mold. They are each concavo-convex and generally fiat or shallow. When placed face to face with their concave sides facing each other, they being in registry with each other (i. e., their outer contours registering all around), they are detachably secured together by removable means, as screws 3 ar-- ranged at suitable intervals. In relatively the same positions they have notches 4 in their marginal walls 5 and in the preferred form opposite notches 6 in such walls. When the machine is to be carried in the operators hand each section is preferably formed with a widened body I, a depending shank 8, which is the handle portion of the section, and an upstanding head 9, the shank and head coinciding axially with the vertical axis of the body and the former having the notch 4 and the latter the notch B. When the sections have this particular form there may be secured in the head of each, as by a screw II], a channeled block ll whose groove or channel is alined with the notch B.

I 2 designates the mentioned elongated slides. Each of these is guided by one of the sections so as to reciprocate lengthwise of itself, as by engaging in the notch 4 and also in the notch 6 and the channel of block H if the latter notch and the block are present. The slides may respectively have attached to their lower ends, which it will be understood protrude from the respective sections when the slides reciprocate, the needle I3 and the follower I4, the follower and needle usually being adapted to bear against each other when the sections (with the contained and opposed slides) are assembled, as shown in Fig. 2. The slides are so guided as to move in paths substantially parallel to each other and to the plane (as :c, Fig. 2) between the sections.

A shaft 15 which traverses the housing and is journaled therein at one side of the slides and near the top of the section-bodies l (to wit, 1n alined bearing holes l6 formed in the sections) and it has pinions I 'l which may be pinned to the shaft, the two pinions bearing against the inner sides of the sections so that the shaft, in the assembled condition of the sections, is confined against endwise displacement. In other words, the shaft and its pinions form a driver having its intermediate portion toothed, here in two zones.

The separate means to transmit motion from the driver to the slides are in this example as follows: There are gears l8 rotative in planes parallel to the plane 1' and coaxially arranged in the bodies I of the respective sections each between the back wall of the corresponding section and the slide therein, each such gear being journaled on a headed stud [9 whose head is inward of and countersunk in the gear and which is held in a hole bored in said back wall by an exterior nut 20. The gears mesh with the respective pinions of the driver. Each gear has an eccentric headed stud 2| equipped with a roller 2 la and held in the gear by a nut 2 lb (Fig. 5) there may be several holes 2|c arranged in the gear at different distances from its center to receive the stud. The slide corresponding to each gear has a crosshead 22 slotted transversely of the slide and this receives said stud which has its head inwardly of the slide, the roller serving as an anti-friction bearing. In the example the gears are confined to the respective housing sections by the headed studs I9 and the slides are confined to the respective gears by the headed studs 2!, Wherefore when the screws 3 are removed the machine is divisible into two independently intact sections or assemblies, i. e., each comprising a housing section, gear and slide with these parts retained assembled with each other by the headed studs. Thus inconvenience attending the parts of each machine section becoming disassembled when the separation is effected is avoided.

To alter the timing of the two slides the operator detaches one machine section from the other, with consequent disengagement of at least one gear from the driver, whereupon the moving train comprising one gear and slide may be set in the desired new relation to the other train, as by rotating the gear of the former, before reassembling the two machine sections.

To alter the throw of either slide the corresponding stud 2| may be shifted to another hole Zlc in the gear. For this or any other purpose a slide or gear is readily removable because the corresponding housing section is concave-convex throughout its whole extent.

Whether the driver is driven from a remote motor or from one carried by the machine is not material. However, I show a motor 23 affixed to one housing section and geared with the driver through bevel gearing 24, 25 indicating the leads of a circuit which may be closed by a circuitcloser 2E conveniently in the form of an elastic strip of insulating material affixed at one end to the other housing section and having its other end in convenient reach of the operators hand, which grips the handle formed by the shanks 8 of such two sections.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is: v

1. In a tufting machine, the combination, with a housing complete in two substantially counterpart and generally flat concave-convex sections and means detachably uniting them in substantial registry with and with their concave sides facing each other, opposed elongated slides reciprocating lengthwise of themselves within the respective sections and guided thereby in paths substantially parallel to each other and to the plane between the sections and in reciprocating being adapted to protrude in the same direction from the housing and having their protruding ends adapted respectively to carry the needle and follower of the machine, a rotary driver journaled in the housing, and separate means, movable within the respective sections and geared to the driver, for transmitting reciprocation from the driver to said slides, one of the latter means being disconnective from the driver when said sections are separated.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 characterized by said slides being substantial counterparts of each other and the second-named means being also substantial counterparts of each other.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 characterized by each slide and motion-transmitting means being confined to the corresponding section independently of the other section.

4. In a tufting machine, the combination, with a housing complete in two substantially counterpart and generally flat concavo-convex sections and means detachably uniting them in substantial registry with and with their concave sides facing each other, opposed elongated slides reciprocative lengthwise of themselves within the respective sections and guided thereby in paths substantially parallel to each other and to the plane between the sections and in reciprocating being adapted to protrude in the same direction from the housing and having their protruding ends adapted respectively to carry the needle and follower of the machine, a rotary driver journaled in the housing with its axis penetrating both sections and crossing the slides and having between the sections a peripherally toothed portion, and separate means, including gears journaled within the respective sections and geared with said toothed portion, for transmitting reciprocation from the driver to the slides, one of the gears being disconnective from the driver when said sections are separated.

5. In a tufting machine, the combination, with a housing comprising two substantially counterpart and generally fiat concavo-convex sections and means detachably uniting them in substantial registry with and with their concave sides facing each other, opposed elongated slides reciprocative lengthwise of themselves within the respective sections and guided thereby in paths substantially parallel to each other and to the plane between the sections and in reciprocating adapted to protrude in the same direction from the housing and having their protruding ends adapted respectively to carry the needle and follower of the machine and each slide being exposed throughout substantially its whole extent toward the opposite section, gears in the respec tive sections rotative in planes parallel with the first-named plane and between which the slides are arranged, removable means affording bearings for the gears and holding the gears to the respective sections, each slide having a transversely slotted crosshead, studs removably attached to the respective gears eccentrically thereof and each engaged in the crosshead slot of the adjoining slide and holding such slide to the gear, and a rotary peripherally toothed driver journaled in the housing and meshing with both gears, one gear being disconnective from the driver when the sections are separated.

FRANK J. LUNDGREN. 

